OOC: Closed to myself and Amalia Azalin until further notice.

IC:

Naboo was a peaceful planet that thrived with life. Beautiful plants gave vibrant color and clean air to the atmosphere, creating a calming feeling for inhabitants. The government was stable, and the people were content. All was right with this little-known gem in the galaxy.

The Jedi, keepers of peace and justice, were very numerous on Naboo. It was on this planet where they kept their Temple and Academy, ensuring that the Jedi would exist in generations to come. Because of the large amount of Light Siders, as well as the great amount of life thriving on the planet, the living Force was very prominent. Young Padawans learning to use their abilities had no problems sensing the Light Side in every object around them.

In the Jedi Temple, Kahn sat on the floor with his legs crossed. An artificial waterfall gave off the sound of running water, creating a soothing atmosphere. The Jedi Master's eyes were closed, his breathing deep and even. To someone not familiar with the Jedi, it would appear that he was asleep. The truth was that he was merely meditating, a very deep meditation.

There was no sign of the inner turmoil and battle that had once been evident in the Master. No, he had conquered his demons long ago. Nor was there the emptiness that had made his very soul ache, had made him search for something he could not name. That which he had looked for had been found not long ago.

Marrying Hanna Skywalker had put Kahn's soul at rest, helping her as well. At this point in his life he was content and had no troubles, at least nothing more than trivial matters. Life was just about perfect for the Jedi Master.

<font color="light blue">Somewhere off planet...

Home again. Home was where the heart was. Amalia had not stayed away for long, just a few weeks. A simple vacation, just to ease her mind, her fears, her worries, her troubles, her sorrows, and her heartache. Yet her vacation had eased none of these things, why?


She'd never gone on vacation as she had intended, but she did manage to stay away from home, home being Naboo.

She'd gone somewhere, but not for a vacation. No, a vacation was supposed to be something one enjoyed, but there were always exceptions to this.

Her brain had been placed on overload while away, every second of every hour, her brain was at work, filled with thought after thought.

She'd been so restless, so confused, so empty. So...nothing.

She hoped to never feel that way ever again. She would not be able to handle such tormented feelings next time.

Truth be told, Amalia did not want to go back home, she wanted to hide away, just for a little longer. She'd faced what was inside herself, but now going back home meant that she would have to face everything else.

She had thought that facing her inner demons had been the hardest thing she would have ever had to do for herself, but she was very wrong...

Facing reality was so much harder. Facing the world around her would be much harder.

She was just one person, and the world around her, so much tremendously bigger.

Yet when she closed her eyes, she could see picture it all, her world. Sometimes that picture looked so very beautiful, and sometimes...so very ugly.

Yet it was her world, and she accepted it that way.

Reality is nothing simple, and that it why such a thing is so hard to face.

Going home, it meant having to face reality once again. She was strong enough to face reality again, and she was ready to go home again...



The heavily brown clothed figure looked out the main viewport of the shuttle, looking upon the planet known as home. The figure had not left home alone, but the destination back was just for one....

The Jedi Master's companion had already been dropped off elsewhere, but a return home was sure to come, soon...

No skin, the figure showed no skin, clothed completely in brown robed material.

Coming home was a different matter in its entirety, but showing one's face once again was easier said than done...


The figure smiled....




An hour later, on Naboo...

The Jedi Master quietly and without notice, slipped into her Jedi Quarters, her presence cloaked by the force. She still remained covered from head to toe in her robes.</font>

The Force was something that affected all beings in the galaxy. It penetrated and surrounded everything, resided in every object and person.

Because of the way the Force existed in every location, Force users could learn to recieve messages from it. Oh, it was nothing clear like words. No, more often than not it came in the form of a ripple. A disturbance, something that would alert Jedi to an event that had occured or had yet to come.

Kahn was relaxed as he meditated, allowing images to filter easily through his mind. The Force pulsed within him, proof of the strong bond he had developed with the Light Side. He felt incredibly aware of everything and nothing.

Suddenly, that peaceful scene was broken. The Jedi Master found himself onslaughted by a ripple -no, it was more like a wave- of disturbance in the Force. Something horrible had happened, that he was sure of. He had a foreboding feeling in the pit of his stomach now, an uneasiness. And, for whatever reason, he found himself afraid to search more deeply for the source of the wave.

The sound of feet nervously padding towards Kahn caused his eyes to open, and he took in the figure of a young Padawan. The learner looked a bit frightened, no doubt feeling uneasy about interrupting the Master's meditation. But there was something more than that, something Kahn could not put a finger on....

"What news do you bring, young Padawan?"

It was obvious, through use of the Force, that the boy had come to deliver a message. Without more than a moment's hesitation (for he was, after all, a Jedi) the Padawan answered.

"Master Kahn, I was told to deliver you a message. Your wife, Hanna Skywalker, was on her way back to Naboo today. There...there was some mechanical trouble on-board the ship. It exploded halfway to our star system. There were no known survivors."

<font color="lighblue">So she home again, the feeling of being home again was nothing so marvelous though. Being home once more did not exactly bring her any comfort, for the simple fact that she knew she would have to face life again. This also meant that she would have to face people again, people she hadn't seen for a few weeks. People she had once been able to identify with so long ago, and she had not been able to identify with any living soul since the day she had set out on her vacation.

Being home again made everything even that much more difficult for her. She still was not ready to face those whom were known to her as family, friends. She'd left so much behind the day of her vacation, but now she had brought back something else entirely different, and it was not the same, not completely.

Something new had come over the Jedi Master, something quite hard to see, something faint in existence. She was still Amalia though, just...different.



The first thing the Jedi Master had done when she returned home was sleep, it was all that she wanted to do, really. She was not tired, nor did she have the energy to sleep, but nonetheless, she slept. Until she was awoken by a tremor in the force at least.

The tremor was so big and so strong that it had aroused her from a very deep sleep, making her awake fully.

Her stomach seemed to tighten, and she began to feel quite ill.

A life had been taken, a life not at all unfamiliar to the Jedi Master, but who? She was not sure. Though she disliked any bad feelings within the force, it disturbed here more when a situation such as this came up.

The fear of not knowing who, how or why. She could not tell, and it made her that much more uneasy. Yet there was nothing she could do, at least for the moment. There was nothing she could do but wait, and hope that it all would come to her.

She had been meant to come home again, and rightfully so, on this day.</font>

As those words fell from the Padawan's mouth, the Jedi Master stared at him in silence. There was a look of utter disbelief and shock on Kahn's face, and the Padawan shifted his weight from one foot to the other nervously.

No. It couldn't have happened. Hanna was not dead. She couldn't be. They had survived the worst. When Ahnk captured the two of them, when he forced Kahn to train as a Sith, they had both made it out of the situation alive. They had overcome the barriers that had separated them and pledged their love to one another. They had become husband and wife, and even created two life forms together! Hanna couldn't have died from a mere ship wreck, no, it wasn't true....

And yet, Kahn knew the truth. That wave he had felt made sense now; it had been the feeling of someone close to him, someone who shared his very soul, leaving the world of the living.

The Jedi Master found himself overwhelmed with grief, anger, and fear. He barely managed a few words to the Padawan.

"Go. Now."

The younger Jedi needed no further urging, and exited the room quickly. Unable to deal with the emotions raging inside him, the Jedi Master put his face in his hands as tears streamed down his face. Mentally, he was screaming with the pain of his loss, oblivious to anything going on around him.

<font color="lightblue">Amalia continued to struggle with the overwhelming feelings that were now set before her. Several minutes had passed by now, and still she had not come any closer to easing her fears of not knowing who had passed away so suddenly. A hint was soon to make its way to her within seconds.

"Wha..."

No sooner did Amalia begin to feel something else within the force.

There..

She felt it, pain, sorrow, loss, and grief....And if she wasn't mistaken fear and anger, traces well known to be a part of the darkside.

What startled her most was that these feelings were coming from someone very familiar to her, and very close to her as well.

Kahn.


...And so it was that the Jedi Master needed any longer to ponder at her thoughts. She knew what she had to do. She would go to him.

Still covered in the same material as she had entered her quarters in, the Jedi Master followed Kahn's force signature within the force, quickly making her way to the Jedi Master.</font>

Fear. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. Fear is the path to the Dark Side. That phrase was one that all Jedi knew of, and most took heed of the warning it carried. Fear that went unchecked inevitably caused the being who felt it (if he or she was Force sensative) to waver towards the Dark Side.

A Jedi Master such as Kahn would normally have dealt with any fear or anger he felt calmly and rationally, by finding the source of that emotion and helping himself to overcome his fear. However, at the moment, he was hurting far too much to pay any mind to the dangerous feelings that were growing within him.

Fear. Fear because he was afraid to live without Hanna, because he could not picture a life without her being there with him.

Anger. Anger because he knew that someone so good, so innocent such as Hanna should never have died. Anger that fate had let her life slip away when she had never deliberately harmed anyone.

And, of course, the grief and pain that go hand in hand with the death of a loved one.

All of these emotions raged within Kahn, and he made no move to keep them at bay. In his mind, his life was over. How could he exist without Hanna?

Even in this state, the Jedi Master was able to sense Amalia's presence. However, this information didn't mean much to him. Why should anything matter when his soul mate was gone?

<font color="lightblue">Within minutes Amalia found herself within close range of Kahn. She could see him clearly though she had not made her way towards him yet, the two were still quite a few feet apart from one another.

Her gaze fell away from Kahn, landing on the artificial waterfall, her face seemed to soften.

She'd need to only take one look at Kahn to understand what had happened.

Hanna.

Hanna had been the presence that Amalia had been feeling through the force. It all made sense now.

Her eyes found their place back on Kahn once more, and slowly she made her way toward him.



Kahn had his head bent down, looking towards his lap, tears in his eyes. She was sure Kahn had purposely positioned himself in such a way so that no one would see his tears.

Amalia only got to see them because as she got to where Kahn was sitting, she made herself get down on her knees to kneel before him.


The first thing she did as she settled herself in front of the Jedi Master was raise his chin with both of her hands so that he could look at her without him avoiding her gaze.

She would only utter five words, ever so softly, but those words would be words that would mean a great deal to Kahn, whether he wanted to believe them or not.

"I am here for you..."</font>

Humans want many things in their lives, but these things are not neccissarily what they need. Kahn wanted nothing more than to be left alone at the moment, if only because he didn't think he could bear the pain of speaking about what had happened. He didn't want to face reality, because then he knew that everything would be confirmed so entirely that he wouldn't be able to fool himself into thinking that it was all just a nightmare.

However, when Amalia spoke those words, gazing steadily into his eyes, he didn't draw away. His voice was uneven and broke slightly as he spoke.

"Hanna's dead, Amalia. She's gone."

Now he did pull away, trying in vain to hide the new set of tears that welled up and overflowed in his eyes.

Kahn had been a young child when he first met Amalia, and their bond had strengthened from that day for many years. Because of his lack of a parental figure in his youth, his Master had filled that role. Although he didn't even realize it himself, she represented, in a way, the mother who had been torn from him on Tatooine. Right now, he was a child again, unable to cope with the loss and pain he was feeling.

<font color="lightblue">"Hanna's dead, Amalia. She's gone."

Amalia watched as new tears formed in Kahn's eyes. She knew how empty he was feeling inside. She'd felt that emptiness so many times before, herself.

Truly, there was nothing she could say to Kahn that would make the pain go away. However, it was obvious that Kahn did not need to hear Amalia say that she knew Hanna was gone. He did need to know one thing though, and in a way, what she was about to tell him, would not completely make the words that he had just uttered, true.

She once again reached out with one of her hands, softly pulling his chin toward her once again so that he would look at her, and then she removed her hand, speaking once again.

"Hanna is dead, but she's not gone, Kahn," she said softly.

There seemed to be no connection made as the look that registered on Kahn's face was one of confusion.

It was clear that words were not enough, and she would have to show Kahn just what exactly she meant. Gently she reached out with her hands, and cupped one of Kahn's hands with her own two hands.

Ever so slowly she moved to guide his hands away from where they were and toward his chest, their hands stopping just where Kahn's heart rested.

It was then that Amalia felt the need to speak again.

"She will always be with you, Kahn, always...and no one can take that feeling away from you, ever. You will always have her in your heart to remember and to love."</font>